


Cormorant's Flight

by kailthia



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: AU of an AU, F/F, F/M, Gift Fic, M/M, family stuff, skinchangers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-16
Updated: 2014-07-16
Packaged: 2018-02-09 03:34:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1967442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kailthia/pseuds/kailthia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is an AU of Thorinsmut's Pretty Bird AU. Enjoy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cormorant's Flight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Thorinsmut](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thorinsmut/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Pretty Bird](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1606355) by [Thorinsmut](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thorinsmut/pseuds/Thorinsmut). 



Dori stared at the letter in his hands as if the power of his gaze could change the words written on it, somehow altering his mother’s graceful handwriting, turning her news into something more palatable. Knowing that his hopes were futile – as _Amad_ said, _if wishes were fishes we’d all grow scales_ – Dori set the letter down and began cleaning up the mess of broken porcelain teacup and spilled raspberry tea.

When he and his siblings had gotten a letter – from Viri – that their mother had struck up a relationship with the Princess Dís, he had been resigned after overcoming his initial shock. Ari was, after all, following a longstanding family tradition of relationships with royals and their close kin, as was Nori. Ori – bless his sweet soul – had been happy that _Amad_ was happy, and Nori had just shrugged, saying that now _Amad_ would have some interesting stories to tell when she reached the Mountain before asking for his medicine.

When Thorin and his sister-sons approached them – having heard of this from Dís both in terms of personal and political ramifications, they had agreed to keep it fairly quiet. Not _lying_ by any means, as the truth would out in any case, but not announcing the relationship from the highest point in the Mountain. This was aided by the fact that Dís and Ari could not reproduce; while they had a forge and hammer between them, Ari was well past childbearing.

At least, Ari had thought herself past childbearing. This letter, however, implied that Ari’s calculations had been off in quite spectacular fashion, and he had a new sibling; Ari and Dís had named the child Aís, which would hold as a baby-name until ze knew zir own mind and could choose the use-name which would hold throughout the rest of zir’s life.    

  Dori stood from the chair in the back room of his teashop, pocketing the letter. The post runner had brought the letter – along with sample of Viri’s lace to send to the Weaver’s Guild, another step in the attempt to convince them to let her gain her mastery – that morning, but Dori had only been able to open the packet after the shop had cleared out the supper crowd. Signaling for his second to take over for the night, Dori left the shop at a trot, grumbling as he readjusted the silk patch over his eye. Nori had stolen his glass eye the night before, fascinated, as ever, by the iridescent sparkle of the opal that formed the ‘iris’ and the jet of the ‘pupil.’ Dori knew that he should order some spares; apart from Nori’s predilections, having just one artificial eye was a recipe for disaster. He had only gotten one done at first, but enough time had passed since the Restoration that he felt justified in the idea of getting more done up. And it wasn’t like he couldn’t afford it.

As he approached the _zundushfillûr_ quarters, Dori squared his shoulders. This was going to be interesting.

oOoOoOoOo

            The real trouble came the next day, with Thorin bulling his way into Dori’s shop soon before its opening for the day looking like a thundercloud, a rather bewildered Fíli and Kíli and a concerned Balin in his wake. Ori scuttled in soon afterwards, still dusty from the archives, Dwalin supporting a still-weak Nori through the door in his wake. Dori hurriedly sent his employees into the kitchen and locked the shop door, Thorin fuming and stomping his foot impatiently. Dori returned to the big corner booth where everyone had gathered, and Thorin thunked a letter with a Durin-blue seal down on the table.

“My sister informs me that I have become an uncle for the third time. With your lady mother.”

No one looked terribly surprised. Dori knew that everyone at the table was aware of the relationship to some degree. He looked his king squarely in the eyes, and asked, “Your point being?”

Thorin’s glower intensified. “Well, what do you have to say for yourselves?” Behind Thorin, Balin winced, obviously troubled by Thorin’s lack of decorum.

Dori raised an eyebrow, and decided that a bit of careful honesty was in order. “What do we have to say for ourselves? My lord, we here” – he gestured around himself to his family – “were not party to the issue under consideration. Your lady sister and my mother are both grown Dams, responsible to no one. If you have a problem with their behavior, I strongly suggest you take it up with them.” Seeing Thorin’s apparent lack of convincing about the issue, Dori sighed. This would take a bit of explaining.    

oOoOoOoOoOo

            Thorin had eventually calmed down, though a lot of his loss of temper had to do with Fíli’s solid arguments in favor of accepting his mother’s actions and Kíli’s puppy eyes. Balin’s sensible statement about the unlikeliness of the child ever inheriting the throne with two healthy princes also helped a great deal. Thorin had acquiesced to accepting the child as a member of the Line of Durin as well as that of Arnhadda; while Thorin had tried to argue that for the child belonging solely to the Line of Durin, Nori had been able to convince him that the child had enough of the bird in zir blood that denying that side of zir heritage would be harmful. If Aís had been like Dori and Ori, then they would have been entirely willing to let the Line of Durin have the official claim on their mother’s youngest. After all, the legal claim was important, but the ties of blood were stronger … usually.  

oOoOoOoOo

            Dís, Ari, Viri, and Aís had arrived with the last of the caravans from Ered Luin. It was a large group, and there was a correspondingly large crowd preparing to welcome them, beyond the official bother associated with the ‘official’ return of all the refugees to Erebor.

            As the princess’ wagon pulled up in front of the Great Gates, Thorin and his nephews stepped forward. Princess Dís made a graceful exit from the wagon, and greeted her brother with aplomb before the moment was completely and utterly ruined by Fíli and Kíli tackling their mother and asking to see the baby. Dís’ loud laugh rang out over the crowd, and, pushing her sons back towards their uncle for the moment, reached back into the wagon to hold a small blanket-wrapped bundle as Viri hopped out of the wagon to assist her mother in disembarking.

            There was a moment of quiet apprehension as Dís introduced her consort, their child, and her consort’s daughter to her brother, but the moment broke as Thorin reached out for the child and performed the head of family’s rite of acceptance of a sibling’s child in front of the crowd. The fact that Aís reached up to tangle a small fist in in zir uncle’s beard didn’t hurt anything either.

oOoOoOoOo

            Aís first changed at almost three years. Fíli and Kíli had had the minding of her when it happened, as their mother and uncle had been busy with a planning meeting for Durin’s Dayh with their advisors, and the Ris were dealing with the aftermath of a death in the _zundushfillûr_ quarters. So when the Princes came roaring into the same, babbling incoherently, Fíli with a handful of tiny black fluff, it took a while for everything to get sorted out.

oOoOoOoOo

            Dwalin had almost had an aneurism when Viri and Nori began helping Aís learn to fly in earnest. Ari had already done most of the preliminary work, teaching Aís to flap in a hopping gait after food and sparkly items while in bird form. Once that skill had been mastered, Nori and Viri had taken Aís to the outdoor gardens attached to the _zundushfillûr_ quarters and carefully placed their toddling sibling on a ledge where ze would probably fall off. There was a large latch of moss at the bottom if ze really couldn’t figure out what to do, but Nori and Viri were confident that Aís could figure it out.

            Unfortunately, Dwalin, who was reading a book nearby, didn’t know what was happening. When Aís did fall off the edge, letting out a confused croak, Dwalin leapt up and dashed madly towards the ledge, catching Aís with a delicacy that was belied by his armor, muscles, and sheer size. Dwalin cradled Aís carefully, but the look he favored his husband and sister-in-law with was a mix of barely-contained confusion and anger.

“ _What was that for_?” he gasped out.

Nori and Viri exchanged a look. This was going to be fun.

**Author's Note:**

> About names: Obviously, since gender has an impact on names, there’s a bit of an issue where naming kids comes into play. I went with the idea that a kid would be given a “starter name” that would be based on other factors than the “sex” of the name (e.g. based on parents’ names, the kid ‘looks’ like the name), and, when they reached a decision about what gender they wanted, would pick whatever pronoun(s)/name(s) they wanted that matched their preference and family schemes. So here, Aís is suitable b/c it follows the parental naming scheme – Dís and Ari.  
> Aís’ bird is a Cape Cormorant.  
> http://web.uct.ac.za/depts/stats/adu/species/capecormorant.htm


End file.
